From His Heart

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Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. Learn to taste the goodness of God.

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What you think of when you think of God is the most important thing about you. Do you see a God who loves you? Do you see a God who is compassionate and gracious, a God who is patient, a God who is encouraging, a God who wants to enable you?

You need to get that picture in your mind and you need to humble yourself to him. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Have you done? Heal every scar with real truth, real love, real hope. From his heart.

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The devil wants to draw a picture that you hang in your mind of what God looks like, a distorted picture of God. So are you truly convinced that the Lord truly is good and great and awesome and beyond anything that our minds can comprehend?

This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. Thank you for joining us today as we begin part two of the message called the Goodness of God. It's from Pastor Jeff's new 10 lesson series entitled Before There Were the Cost of Compromise, where he'll give encouragement with four attributes and facets of God's goodness that we can see displayed in the life of Gideon.

Now, this is the fifth lesson in this 10 message series. If you missed any so far this month, go to fromisheart.org, click the listen link to catch up. But first, open your Bible to the Book of Judges, chapter six. Here again is Pastor Jeff.

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Now we're in a series on the Book of Judges, and today we're gonna look at the judge who gets the most ink, the most time and space, and that's the judge, Gideon. He's an unlikely hero, but he's the guy that God chose. And from God's dealings with Gideon, we see into the goodness of God. So think about this question: Have you tasted the goodness of the one true God that's revealed in scripture?

Four attributes and facets of his goodness. Facet number one, God is a compassionate God. God is a compassionate God. And God, as we're going to see, had compassion on his disobedient people yet again. Now, compassion in the English compound word calm, which means with, and passion, which means suffering, it's with suffering. And that means that God feels your hurt in his heart. He feels for you and me in our difficulties and in our distresses. And he felt for the people even though it was self-inflicted and it was all their own doing. Because he says in verse 10, you know, I'm the Lord who did all these things for you, and yet you have not obeyed Me. And yet God had compassion for his disobedient people. See, he feels for you and me in our difficulties, just like he felt for them. And he responds to you when you cry out to him. The sons of Israel cried out to God, the people of Israel cried out to God because things were so bad; Israel was brought so very low. And he tells us in 1 Peter 5:7, cast all your cares upon him. Why? Because he cares for you. Literally, it matters to him, the great God of the universe. It matters to him concerning you.

God is a compassionate God. The second facet of God's great nature and character is that God is a patient God. And he's going to visit a person named Gideon, who is threshing wheat in a winepress so nobody can see him. He's trying to get enough wheat for a sandwich or two. And the Lord comes to him. Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, verse 12, the Lord is with you, O valiant warrior. Then Gideon said to him, O my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian. The Lord looked at him and said, go in this your strength, and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you? And he said to him, O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house. But the Lord said to him, surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man.

Now, God is a patient God. Not only is he compassionate, but he's patient. And when he comes to you, this should have been the most awesome moment in Gideon's life. The God of the universe has come to me, and he said that I'm going to deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. But Gideon doesn't feel awe; he feels angst. And when he responds to the Lord, it's so negative. Now, the Lord is patient, patient with Gideon. And that's good news because he's patient with you and me too.

Now notice how he deals with Gideon. See, the Lord is patient when you are depressed and despondent. Gideon, depressed. He's despondent at this time. And he asks the Lord these questions. The Lord doesn't answer his objections at all. The Lord calls him to action. And the Lord could have said, yeah, okay, well, forget it. I'm going to find somebody else. I'm not going to deal with you, Gideon. You're just Mr. Negative. But he doesn't do that. He keeps on with him. Hey, I'm going to call you, and you are going to defeat Midian as one man. God is patient even when you're depressed and despondent.

But not only is he patient with us when we're depressed and despondent, God is patient when you are afraid. And one of the things, as you read about Gideon, you find out that he was afraid on more than one occasion. It talks about his fear. And so Gideon's afraid. And when the Lord says, I'm going to use you to deliver it, well, how is that going to happen? I mean, my family is the least in all of Manasseh, and I'm the least in my family. I'm the runt of the litter. I'm not a deliverer. I can't do it. He was afraid. And so God is patient with us when we are depressed, when we're hopeless, when we're feeling sad. He's patient with us when we're afraid.

And God is patient with us even when we're doubting. Verse 17. So Gideon said to him, if now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign. Give me some proof that it is you who speak with me. And God says, okay. And God did that for Gideon. He was struggling with doubt, he was struggling with fear. He was struggling with despondency. And God was patient with him. Hey, do you have some doubts in your heart? Do you have some fears in your heart? It's okay. Just bring those to the Lord. Psalm 62, verse 8. Trust in him at all times, O people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us.

So we see of the goodness of God, his compassion. God is a compassionate God. His patience. God is a patient God. Thirdly, God is an encouraging God. He gives encouragement to us. See, God sees what you can be, not what you are now. God knows what you are right now. But God sees what you can be if you will trust him. I remember hearing a sermon years ago that Sundays, there are three people in your seat right now: the person you are right now, the person you can be for God if you will trust him, and the person you can be for evil if you don't trust him.

Hey, how do you see yourself? Do you see yourself as someone who can be a great force and a difference maker for the Lord? Or someone who's a loser, someone who's never going to make it in life, someone who can't do? Paul said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Proverbs 23, verse 7 says, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. The little phrase that says this, the me I see is the me I'll be. The me I see is the me I'll be. So that's why it's so important every day to spend time in the word of God. Because truth is not what you think, truth is not what you feel. Truth is not what you contemplate. Truth is what God says. And what does God say about you?

We had a T-shirt made up last year. Romans 8:37. But in all these things, we're overwhelmingly conquerors through Jesus Christ our Lord. Hey, you're a super conqueror in Jesus Christ. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. The me I see is the me I'll be. If the Lord says to you, you're a valiant warrior, and you say, I may not feel like it, but you say it. That's what I am. Yes, Lord.

And when he tore down the altar of Baal, his father's altar of Baal, they were going to kill him for it. The men of the city said, who tore down Baal's altar? Bring him out that we may kill him. And Gideon's dad stepped up and said, wait a minute, you're going to kill him? Well, I thought Baal was a god. You have to fight Baal's battles for him. If Baal's a god, let Baal kill him. And so they said, okay. Well, Baal didn't kill him. And Gideon had a new name that they gave him, Jerubaal, which means Baal fighter.

So here is this guy threshing wheat in the winepress. And now all of a sudden, he's called a valiant warrior. And then he took a step of faith, and now he's called Baal fighter. And now he's ready to go to battle. Hey, God is a God of encouragement. And God gives a word of assurance. When you need it the most, that's God. When you need it the most, God gives you this word of assurance.

So Gideon gets through the fleece deal. The Lord shows him. And Gideon has 32,000 men with him. And they're going up against the Midianites and the Amalekites, and they have 135,000 men. So it's 32,000 versus 135,000. So Gideon's thinking to himself, I need to cry out to The Lord for more men because we're outnumbered 4.2 to 1. And before he can cry out to the Lord and ask for more men, the Lord says to him, Gideon, you have too many. Too many. Yep. He goes, I'm not going to give the Midianites into your hand because you have too many. And then you guys would say, well, look at how great we are. We're mighty warriors. We're Spartan 300, you know, that kind of thing. And so he said, I'm not going to do it. He said, so here's what we got to thin down the herd. This is what you need to do. You say to the men, you're 32,000. If anybody is afraid, you can leave.

So Gideon got up and said, okay, guys, if any of you are afraid, you can leave. And there was a stampede of 22,000 guys that said, I am out of here. We were outnumbered 4.2 to 1. I am out. So he had 10,000 left. And the Lord said to Gideon, now is nervous. You know, we were outnumbered 4.2 to 1. Now we're outnumbered 13.5 to 1. And before he can say to the Lord, Lord, I need some help here, the Lord said, you got too many guys. We gotta thin this out. And so he does the tests, if you're familiar. He takes them to the brook and they're gonna drink. And he says, Gideon, you look, the guys that stick their face in the water, we don't want those guys. But the guys that take the water to their mouth, we want those guys. And when he looked, there were 300 dog lappers out of the 10,000. So he said, I want the 300 dog lappers. And now they're outnumbered 450 to 1. And God says, now we're ready.

But here is Gideon. He deals with fear. And so now he's super afraid because the Lord has just taken away almost all his guys. He's just got 300. And so this is what the Lord says, I just love it, because God gives the word of assurance when you need it the most. So chapter seven, in verse eight, it says this. So the 300 men took the people's provisions and their trumpets in their hands, and Gideon sent all the other men of Israel each to his tent, but retained the 300 men, and the camp of Midian was below him in the valley. Now, the same night it came about that the Lord said to him, arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hands. But if you are afraid, Gideon says, yeah, I'm afraid. If you're afraid to go down, go with Purah, your servant, down to the camp, and you will hear what they say. And afterward your hands will be strengthened that you may go down against the camp.

So he went with Purah, his servant, down to the outpost of the army that was in the camp. Now the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the sons of the east were lying in the valley, as numerous as locusts, and their camels were without number, as numerous as the sand on the seashore. He's got 300 guys. When Gideon came, behold, a man was relating a dream to his friend. And he said, behold, I had a dream. A loaf of barley bread, which is just cheap, coarse bread, a loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp of Midian. And it came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down so that the tent lay flat. And his friend said, this is nothing less than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel. And God has given Midian and all the camp into his hand.

And when Gideon heard the account of the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, arise, for the Lord has given the camp of Midian into your hands. God gave him that word of assurance because he needed to encourage him, he needed to strengthen him. And so Gideon hears these two guys on the enemy camp. One guy has a dream, and the other guy interprets their dream. Hey, the barley bread that knocked down our tent, you know what the barley bread is? That's Gideon. And the Lord has given us into the hand of Gideon. And so God is an encouraging God.

And lastly, God is an empowering, enabling God, a God who fills us with his strength, a God who fills us with his ability. So you ask yourself the question, okay, how does Gideon win with 300 guys against 135,000, against camels that you can't even count? They're like locusts just covering the earth there. And they're going up against Gideon's 300. How in the world could he win? Judges, chapter 6, verse 34. So the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, literally, the Spirit of the Lord clothed himself with Gideon. That's how he did it. The Lord says, I will be with you, Gideon, and you will defeat Midian as if they're one man, because I'm going to do it through you. And the Spirit of the Lord clothed himself with Gideon, and that's how he won the victory.

And that's what God wants to do in your life. He wants to wear you like a suit of clothes. Listen, you don't have what it takes, and that's okay, because I don't have what it takes either. But the Lord has what it takes. He does. He has what it takes. We can't do squat. But when the Lord empowers you, as David said, I can run through a troop or leap over a wall. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Ephesians 3:20. Now, to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory.

And you know what God had Gideon and his 300 do? This is just like the Lord, because his ways are not our ways. He said, now this is what you guys are going to have in your hands. You're going to have a torch, and you're going to have a clay pitcher over the torch, and you're going to have a trumpet. And we're going 300 guys, we're going to have three companies of 100. And we're going to gather around the Midianites and the Amalekites. And when I give the word, you're going to blow the trumpet and you're going to say, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, and you're going to break the clay pot, and you're going to lift up the torch and blow the trumpet. And that's what they did. And God brought about the victory as they did that.

Chapter 7, verse 16. He divided the 300 men into three companies, and he put trumpets and empty pitchers into the hands of all them, with torches inside the pitchers. And he said to them, look at me and do likewise. And behold, when I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. When I and all who are with me blow the trumpets, then you also blow the trumpets all around the camp and say, for the Lord and for Gideon. So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch. Everybody would be asleep when they had just posted the watch. And then they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands.

And when the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing and cried out a sword for the Lord and for Gideon. Each stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran, crying out as they fled. When they blew 300 trumpets, the Lord set the sword of one against another, even throughout the whole army. And the army fled as far as Bethshittah toward Zerarah. There was a great victory that day. And listen, it came about, the key to victory when they broke the pictures and the light began to shine.

Second Corinthians, chapter four. We have this treasure in earthen vessels in clay pots. The treasure is not you and not me. We're just like this glove, nothing special at all, unable to do anything. Jesus said, apart from me, you can do nothing. But with me, you can do all things. And when they broke that clay pot, then the light began to shine and they blew the trumpet and they shouted the battle cry, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. And it freaked those people out. God put panic into the hearts of the enemies and they started killing each other and they ran. And Gideon and his armies were able to chase them down and slaughter them and bring about a great victory.

Listen, you want to have victory in your life? I want to have victory in my life. What's the key? The key is brokenness and surrender. That's the key to victory. You're never going to have victory unless you're broken before the Lord. You're never going to have victory unless you surrender to the Lord. You're never going to have victory unless the Spirit of the Lord clothes himself with you. Because you don't have what it takes. And I don't have what it takes.

Listen, you can never be too small for God to use, but you can be too big for God to use. And God chose Gideon, the smallest family in Manasseh, the runt of the family, the least of all. Because God loves to take the ordinary and do extraordinary things through the ordinary. He loves to take the least and do greatest things through the least, so that all the glory goes to God. He loves to take the weak things to confound the strong. He loves to take the foolish, to confound the wise, the things that are not so that he confound the things that are so that all the praise, all the glory, all the boasting goes to God. He alone is

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And because God is worthy, we should be completely willing to be used by a good and faithful God today, in spite of our weaknesses. Today you heard part two of the lesson, the goodness of God. If you'd like to share it with a friend, just go to fromisheart.org, click the listen link, and you can share that link with a friend. There, you can also download a free MP3 of any broadcast as well as Pastor Jeff's sermon outline notes.

The series is called "Before There Were Kings: The Cost of Compromise," and it's a chapter-by-chapter study of the Book of Judges with an eye-opening reminder of what happens when people reject God's truth in favor of their own desires. It was a time of chaos back then—no king, no clear direction, just a cycle of sin and suffering and desperate cries for deliverance. Yet, even in that mess, God raised up imperfect, unexpected, ordinary people who were called leaders to get God's people back into His arms.

In this new 10-message series, Pastor Jeff unpacks the warnings against apathy, the dangers of compromise, and the hope of redemption. Here is the truth: when you stray from God's way, life unravels. When you turn back to Him, He is always, always, always faithful to restore. This 10-message series is our gift of thanks to you for your support of any amount this month. You can request it on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or MP3 download of your choice. To get yours, call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go online to fromhisheart.org. Reach out today, and with that gift, we'll send you this new series. God bless you for standing with us.

We'll close today with a wonderful reminder about God's goodness found in scripture. In the Psalms, it says, "The Lord is my strength and my shield; in Him my heart trusts, and I am helped. My heart exalts, and with my song I give thanks to Him." (Psalm 28:7)

Well, that's it for today. Join us next time for the sixth lesson in our study of the Book of Judges. It's called "From Conqueror to Compromiser." That's next time when Pastor Jeff Shreve shares real truth, real love, and real hope from God's heart, here on From His Heart.

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He can hear every scar. Real love, real hope from his heart.

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From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more at fromhisheart.org.